How Could You?
by EmilyTT
Summary: It couldn't be true. Robin would never be found next to a burning building, lying broken on the ground with no clue as to where his mentor is, right? The Dynamic Duo was never truly in danger when on the field, right? Wrong. And it was as Robin lay broken on the ground that he remembered what happened. Two words. Joker and explosions.


Smoke littered the sky of the gloomiest city in the United States. Splotched of fire still burned at random points of the destroyed building, and the sound of metal, wood, and everything the building had been made of echoed around the otherwise bleak and quiet night. Owls and animals of the night like didn't dare interrupt the cursed silence.

The noise of sirens sounded from far away just as a young male no older than fifteen years old stirred from his awkward position on the ground. He simply laid there for a while in hopes of recollecting his memory and figuring out why he was sprawled out on the cold, harsh ground.

A red flash that would diminish and reappear seconds later drew him to force his head down and see what it was. Bile rose in the back of his throat at the sight that he was given. His right leg was twisted at an impossible angle from the kneecap down while the foot itself was buried beneath a massive rock. Stark while bone struck out through red-stained flesh.

He couldn't tell where all the blood pooled around his waist was coming from, but he had a good guess that it came from his left leg, which out back and out of his line of vision.

His left arm was near his utility belt at his waist, and he was vaguely surprised as to why is was shaking so bad. He couldn't even feel the tremors.

Huh. Maybe he was in shock. But from what? What had happened?

Just then red light flashed. Faint sirens pulsed through his fuzzy mind so hard that he had to clench his eyes shut to try to block out the irritation. It was then that his memory came back to him. His eyes snapped open wide.

His head snapped to his other side so fast that his vision swam. His neck cracked while his spinal cord creaked, sending waves of pain shooting up his body. He whimpered, but he refused to stop now.

It took a minute, but he finally managed to worm his way so that he was lying on stomach rather than his upper body on his back with his lower half turned sideways.

A weak hand trembled as it reached above his head and planted itself on the ground. He used the last bit of his precious, ever-dwindling energy to try and drag himself forward.

Agony unlike anything he'd felt before crashed up and down his body, and he screamed like there was no tomorrow.

His eyes narrowed in pain and he swept his gaze across what was left of the building. "Ba'm'n?" Robin called out as loudly as he could muster. If it weren't him speaking, he would have never been able to guess whose voice that was. It sounded far too hoarse, strained, and pain-filled to possibly belong to the Boy Wonder, right?

Robin tried calling out again and received the same result. He was about to try a third time when something heavy slammed into his back. Robin's vision went black, and he could literally hear something _snap_ inside his ribcage.

When his senses returned to him after what felt like only a second, Robin found himself suspended in the air. A white face with green hair grinned down at him.

"Look at you." The voice left a pulsing headache in Robin's weary brain. He forced his eyes back open (when had they closed?) and attempted a smirk that didn't even come close to what he wanted.

Then, the hands dropped him. He didn't even feel himself hit the ground. He did feel the agony of the crowbar slamming into his spine with such force that he wouldn't have been surprised if it broke.

But he took the pain of that and the second strike to look at the building once more. "Batman," he mouthed, his body too tired to allow anything else to happen.

His vision faded black on the fourth collision of muscle, skin, blood, and bone to the crowbar, but then someone was prying his eyelids open.

The orange of the fire provided him with enough light to make out other colors such as yellow, red, green, blue, and gold.

"Oh my…"

"Will he be okay…"

"Superman… find Batman…?"

"Dick…? OHMYGODDICK…!"

"OHMYGODWILLHEBEOKAY…?! UNCLEBARRYPLEASE…"

"… Have to get… Midnite… Leslie…"

"No… Bruce… What happened…?"

Dick's world turned to black once more just as the Flash picked him up and began running to Dr. Leslie's workplace. But before darkness could claim him into its warm and comforting embrace, he had time to put together one thought in his brain. _Why did you have to take your cape off to cover me from Joker's bomb, Bruce…?_


End file.
